if you’re looking to murder a few minutes hours of your day, may i suggest an amazing tumblr called 9 eyes created by canadian artist Jon Rafman. in short, it’s a series of screenshots taken from google’s ever controversial “street view” mapping service. in long, it’s a photo-journalistic library of sociological significance, examining the attitudes and behavior of our entire “public” populous while redefining the essence of the human condition through the sterile and detached lens of 9 robotic eyes. in an essay on the project, Rafman writes:

“With its supposedly neutral gaze, the Street View photography had a spontaneous quality unspoiled by the sensitivities or agendas of a human photographer. It was tempting to see the images as a neutral and privileged representation of reality–as though the Street Views, wrenched from any social context other than geospatial contiguity, were able to perform true docu-photography, capturing fragments of reality stripped of all cultural intentions. … Google Street Views present a universe observed by the detached gaze of an indifferent Being. Its cameras witness but do not act in history. For all Google cares, the world could be absent of moral dimension”.

after viewing the entire collection, i am now in the position to believe that this world has an overwhelming amount of prostitutes, street tuffs and people willing to sleep on the ground, (but not in san francisco), then i would have ever cared to imagine before, (not to mention segways, wtf!) of course there’s much more to see here than just the dregs of society, but who cares? we all know that’s the good stuff. so take a peek for yourself, you deserve a break! and if your interested you can read more about the project here. or if your super interested, you can see a selection of the prints on view at the New Museum in new york. they are part of the current show “Free“, which runs until January 23, 2011.